Shoot Your AR Twice as Far

Did you know that the AR-15, the humble 5.56, can reach far greater distances than you’ve probably given it credit for?  We’ve got a new course taught by one of our WPS instructors, Josh Kent, a former Army Special Forces sniper.  The course is called Mid-Range Marksman, and you can check it out here.  I’m just going to say it, Holy Cow, me and the other WPS instructors who piloted this course really learned a lot!  We didn’t know what we didn’t know!

Here’s the thing, I thought I was good to go on all this stuff; I thought I knew how to mount an optic, but apparently, I didn’t, but now I do.  So, check out the class to get yourself locked in a distance.

I want to share some takeaways from the class, some “ah-ha” moments that will elevate your distance precision and immediately make you a better shooter at those longer ranges.  That said, you’ve got to apply all this stuff, so get out there and shoot.  But as always, I’m trying to save you money on stuff you don’t need by investing in your skill set.  There you go.  Free training right here.  You’re welcome.

Rifle Set Up

Here’s really what you need to land those hits at 400 to 600 yards and beyond.  You need a solid magnified optic.  I really like the EoTech Vudu 1-10x, but you need at least a 6x magnification to see your target at those ranges.  I personally prefer First Focal Plane (FFP) optics over Second Focal Plane (SFP) optics because I like the precision provided by the FFP and how the reticle grows with my zoom as opposed to the static reticle of the SFP optic.

You need a precision barrel of high quality that is at least 16” in length.  This is not the time to go with your bargain barrel.  And with those quality optics and barrel, you need the best ammunition you can get.  Match-grade ammo is crucial for landing those hits at distance.  While those are the main three, I’d also add a good trigger in there.  A three-pound break over an eight-pound break really makes a difference.  

Eliminate the three easy variables of barrel, ammo, and glass so you can more readily identify the other factors affecting your performance.  Now, once you’ve got this rifle tuned in, it essentially becomes a dedicated gun.  I don’t go near this gun unless I’m shooting at distance.  It’s set up perfectly for that now.  

Other Essential Kit

To really dial in and make the shots count, you need a bipod that cants and tilts as well as a level so you can ensure, regardless of your terrain, that your rifle is level.  If you’re off that level plane by even a fraction, then all of your math just isn’t going to work.  And if you hate math, then that’s just even more frustrating.  

You also want a laser range finder.  I was using the Vortex Ranger 1800, but it started to show inaccuracies as I got out to 500-600 meters, so I switched to the Vortex Fury HD 5000 AB 10x42 binoculars.  With these, I could see as far as I wanted to, and I was able to range stuff with it.  It’s expensive.  It’s going to hurt.  But buy once, cry once.  Go for what works right away instead of wasting money on a bunch of stuff that never really does anything perfectly. 

A good spotting scope helps you to read the wind and see the bullet trace, so you know what’s going on and how to correct it.  Getting one with mil dots inside is really important, and higher magnification isn’t always better, because you need to see the bullet’s trajectory and see more of the wind.  If you’re zoomed in too far, you can see those aspects as well.  I’d recommend starting at 12x or 14x for what we’re doing here.  But in ELR (Extreme Long Range), you’ll likely need extra magnification. 

A few other items of great importance are a DOPE (Data on Previous Engagement) sheet/notebook, a toolset to make sure you have all your screws torqued to spec (you don’t want to crush your expensive optic, that’s no good), a shooting bag rest that you put under the buttstock and squeeze to help with those minor elevation adjustments, and a shooting mat.  I’m just going to say it, if you’re lying down all day shooting, some comfort helps.  Get a shooting mat.  I didn’t think I needed one, and as soon as I saw the benefit of everyone else’s I immediately ordered one.  

Shooting

Now, in my time at the Ranger Battalion, I wasn’t a sniper, I was a door kicker.  I was clearing rooms all the time, and that doesn’t necessarily transfer well to mid-to-long-range shooting.  When engaging targets at distance, I want to have my rifle locked into my shoulder pocket, or if I’m using a tripod, even closer to the center of my chest.  With the tripod, one leg should be straight out front so you can lean into the tripod to put needed pressure on the rifle to leverage that support to steady your aim.  

What I found was that I was keeping the stock too high on my shoulder, especially in prone while using a bipod.  So, you want to seat your shoulder more on top of the stock, pushing it down which adds stability to your shooting platform.  

The Main Reason I was Missing

When in prone and I had to shift my windage either left or right, I would just barely adjust the rifle with my support hand or move the stock ever so slightly so that I’d be on target, but I wouldn’t move the rest of my body to line up behind the gun.  Not doing this causes the rifle — when it fires — to snap back to the secure position you’ve already established with your body and ends up throwing your shot.  At closer ranges, you may still even hit your target, but that small throw ends up translating to massive distances at longer ranges, and you will miss your target because of it.  

So, if you want to make any change, do so from the body, from moving your hips.  Shuffle your body into alignment and don’t use your muscles to affect your aim.  Make sure everything supporting your aim is structural, not muscular.  

By addressing these issues, I took my AR-15 out a thousand yards and was able to deliver hits.  As you can imagine, that made me happy.

Our Mid-Range Marksman Class

Our Mid-Range Marksman 2-day class is designed to work up to an ELR class.  We want our students to be ahead of the pack when they jump into that longer-range course down the road.  So, while in a Designated Marksman class, you’d be using holds for everything, here in our Mid-Range course, we teach you how to dial everything in and adjust your DOPE (windage and elevation) so that when you take things to the next level, you already know a good deal about distance marksmanship and can rock that class.

Conclusion

This is only the tip of the iceberg.  You’ll likely be able to incorporate some of the things here today and see some good improvement.  That’s great.  That’s what we want.  Yay for that.  

But to really understand this stuff and get dialed in at distance, you need to take a class.  If you’ve undertaken professional firearms training before, you know the improvements you see with pistol and carbine, so you can imagine the improvements you’ll see at distance by learning from a Green Beret Sniper here at Warrior Poet Society.  We look forward to seeing you in class. 

Remember, Train Hard.  Train Smart.  And get the training you need.